The year of the FPS

So yeah 2011 has thus far been a pretty good year for games. Usually the early part of the year is a baron wasteland as far as this sort of stuff goes but so far we’ve had the luxuries of playing the likes of Dead Space 2, Mass Effect 2 for PS3, Little Big Planet 2, Killzone 3, Bulletstorm and a handful more, but the one thing that seems to be ever present for the year of 2011 is the FPS.

The overpowering feel of being sat behind the barrel of a gun, lining up a bad guys head in your dot sight squeezing the trigger, planting a nice dose of bullet to the brain as you watch his squishy entrails and 100’s of skull fragments explode out of the back of his head. Well rejoice FPS junkies! 2011 will be the year where you can tend to your FPS addiction like a crack addict with a bunsen burner and a spoon (just not as life threatening)

Click on the pictures to be taken directly to the games website to find out more

Release Date: Out Now

Platforms: 360, PS3, PC

Publisher: Epic Games / EA / People Can Fly

So yeah this is already one of the most enjoyable games for me personally of the year. I’m gonna do a more detailed write up on this one but for this all i’ll say is that it’s a testosterone fueled, ball out action. Instead of just working through an over the top, typical action storyline full of betrayal and vengeance, this game rewards you for killing enemies as stylishly as possible. So instead of the typical overly monotonous shot, story, kill that dude, cutscene etc. This action in this game is really fun. Scoring points for kicking a dude straight into some electrical wires, or shooting the ass hole out of another is really fun and really rewarding. Checking your surroundings for new ways to kill dudes, plus the arsenal of weapons your given to dole out the punishment that they deserve. With 131 ways to kill off these people, over the top action, great gameplay and a silly over the top storyline. This is one of the better games i’ve played in a while.

Release Date: Out Now

Platforms: PS3 (Move support available)

Publisher: Guerilla Games

Killzone 3 is a gorgeous addition to PS3’s exclusive library. Fighting the Helghast for the 3rd time, the game starts literally 30 seconds after the 2nd outing. If you haven’t played the 2nd Killzone it might be recommended to experience that one before delving into this, or maybe check out the ending, because without you might get a little lost. The game itself looks fantastic and plays really well. While not one of my favorites series of games I’m pretty sure after playing what this game has to offer it might be a mind changer. I’m about 70% through the game thus far, but when i’m done i’ll write up a proper review.

Release Date: March 18th

Platforms: PS3, 360, PC

Publisher: THQ

I’m looking forward to this game a lot. An occupied USA by the Koreans. The idea of playing an everyday man, doing his everyday tasks suddenly gets thrust into this world where he must join a resistance to overthrow the Koreans and take back the country he loves. I know that Modern Warefare 2 already did this with the Russians, but personally this game fascinates me more. In MW2 yeah it was fun to experience the occupation of the US by a foreign country and to take back the whitehouse, but for some reason I’d rather play as your regular joe who is just a normal citizen that joins the uprising to take back his own country. It sounds to be more involving and I really am hoping that this will be a good game. It’s been written by John Milius who wrote Apocalypse Now and Red Dawn so prospects are good story wise, and supposedly the gameplay will be similar to that of Half Life 2, with action set pieces split with tranquil sections and grand environments. I have high hopes for this.

Release Date: TBA

Platforms: PS3, 360, PC

Publisher: Eidos Interactive, Square Enix

I seriously can’t get enough of this game. I have watched every trailer, numerous times, taken in every bit of it’s futuristic, tech noir, style and loved every second of it. People will initially compare it to the Blade Runner, in both look and feel. If you watch anime like I do my initial thoughts go towards that of Ghost in the shell. Set 25 years before the first Deus Ex, you play as Adam Gensen, who through a series of seemingly unfortunate events gets thrust into a world he doesn’t belong, nor wants to belong to. From the trailers i’ve seen and from what i’ve read, the possibilities of how to play the game seem very grand. Each mission you play and each enemy you encounter can be taken out and approached in very different ways. You can upgrade your augmented, sweet as hell, bionic arms to move heavy objects, punch through walls, crush a mans skull and more. They developers boast between 20-25 hours of gameplay which is refreshing considering that most games these days can be completed in a day if you play it on a medium difficulty. Looks incredible, the futuristic style alone appeals to me greatly. Excitement factor = HIGH

Release Date: 25th March

Platforms: PS3, 360, PC

Publisher: Crytek / EA

Now i’m not a massive PC gamer. I had a stint and in recent years I haven’t bothered. I’m more a console gamer than anything. Crysis 2 is the sequel to what many call the greatest looking game ever. Considering that you needed a PC from 50 years into the future just to play the bloody game full spec is a testament to how gorgeous the game looked. Roll on 4 years later, Crysis 2 is again going to set the bar in graphical department. Whether gimmick or not, the first “trailer” was released in a flicker book style because computers couldn’t hack it’s awesomeness. I played around with the multiplayer open beta, and got my ass handed to me, but what I did play of it was fun and engaging. Being able to turn invisible and sneak up on dudes killing them and creeping away as silently as you arrived is quite a treat. The game play to me seemed as FPS as the next. A main weapon and sidearm with grenades and pickups. I don’t know a lot about this one but I know that the original was very popular, so it’s only right to join on the band wagon like the rest…maybe one day i’ll get round to playing the original, see you in 50 *puts on future shades, rolling around on my hover board*

Release Date: ABOUT FRIGGIN’ TIME!!!! (May 6th)

Platform: PS3, 360, PC

Publisher: WHO KNOWS! (Gearbox / 2K Games)

Well at least it’s true to it’s namesake. 14 YEARS after it was originally announced, Duke Nukem Forever finally hits stores May 6th. I remember playing Duke Nukem 3D with friends on the Nintendo 64, and we had a ton of fun. Mostly cheated to get to the end of the game, but was still pretty awesome. A varied amount of enemies, awesome weapons, fully interactive environments, great gra….ok the graphics looking back kinda suck ass, but back in the day they looked awesome! DN3D is available on XBLA so if you want a slice of the boobie, sweary, riping a guys head of and crapping down his neck filled pie then I highly recommend it. 14 years later and now the king is back baby! It actually looks really good, and from what i’ve read and seen it looks like it’s fully interactive environments, it looks like you’ll have varied enemies, and the weapons will hopefully be plentiful. It’ll be an interesting experience to finally play this after 14 years, but my one reservation is how good will it be? Have Gearbox simply given the old style game play a face lift, slapped Duke and some whores on the front and make me spend a full £40? I understand that with the pace they’re working at to release this game they can’t start from scratch, but hopefully it doesn’t have the rusty pace and action that past generation games have suffered from. I hope the best for this franchise because back in the day, and from my own personal experiences with it, it was pretty good. One i’ll be watching out for.

Release Date: April 22nd

Platforms: PS3, 360, PC

Publisher: Valve

This is a pretty exciting one for me, and apparently i’m not alone. Released with The Orange Box in 2007, Portal is one of the most unique games of the generation. Using the aforementioned portals you guide Chell, the seemingly mute test subject from the original game, thrust back into the world of Aperture Science to face the arch nemesis AI that is GLaDOS. The original was fun, but what seemed to somewhat disconnect me from the experience was that the character you play as doesn’t comment or have anything to say about the experiences she’s encountering. Valve seemed to have corrected this for the sequel by throwing you in with a companion Wheatley (voiced by Stephen Merchant) The footage that’s been released shows that the puzzles will be grander, there are bigger and better ways that you encounter each test chamber or…wherever it is you go. I have the original on XBLA and still go back to it occasionally to try and get my Portal fix. I won’t have to wait too long before I get more of it in my life. Oh and the co-op gameplay looks pretty challenging too. If you’ve not played the original I would seriously recommend it. You’ll never play anything like it.

I know that there is the likes of Brink and Rage also talk about, but honestly I don’t know enough to comment on these games. I don’t want to look completely amateur in my first proper post, but when I find out more I might have an opinion or 2 to share, but from what i’ve highlighted, this year seems to be pretty good. It’s a good time to play games, especially if you enjoy First Person Shooters